Tang, T. L. P. (1990). The meaning of money revisited: Workers’ view. Paper presented at the Southwestern Psychologi- cal Association. ERIC ED 318 984.
Comments: The original Money Ethic Scale (MES) consisted of 50 items. There are several versions of the MES. The version referred to in this description has 30 items. Other versions contain six, 12, and 15 items.
Sample: The original sample consisted of 249 employees who were students and/or faculty from a state university in Tennessee who worked in schools, banks, churches, and other organizations.
Reliability: The Cronbach alpha for the six factors were: 0.81 (good); 0.69 (evil); 0.70 (achievement); 0.68 (respect/ self-esteem); 0.72 (budget); and 0.71 (freedom/power). Test-retest reliability over a four-week interval with 50 employees was: 0.67 (good); 0.56 (evil); 0.61 (achievement); 0.63 (respect/self-esteem); 0.65 (budget); and 0.83 (freedom/power).
Validity: The author comments that additional research is necessary to establish construct validity.
Factor Structure: A principal components factor analysis yielded six factors that accounted for 42.8 percent of the variance. The six factors are: good (nine items), evil (six items), achievement (four items), respect/self-esteem (four items), budget (three items), and freedom/power (four items).
Data Analysis: Means, standard deviations, and correlations of the MES and the nomological network (demographic variables, personality variables, the Protestant Ethic, the Leisure Ethic Scale, the JDI, and others) of the MES are reported.
References
Campion, M. A. (1991). Meaning and measurement of turnover: Comparison of alternative measures and recommendations for re- search. Journal of Applied Psychology 76:199–212.
Freshwater, E. K. (2011). Individual predictors of service organizational citizenship behaviors. PhD dissertation, Walden University. Furnham, A. (1996). Attitudinal correlates and demographic predictors of monetary beliefs and behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior 17:375–88.
Tang, T. L. P. (1995). The development of a short Money Ethic Scale: Attitudes toward money and pay satisfaction revisited. Per- sonality and Individual Differences 19:809–17.
Tang, T. L. P., and Gilbert, P. R. (1995). Attitudes toward money as related to intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, stress and work- related attitudes. Personality and Individual Differences 19:327–32.
Tang, T. L. P., and Luna-Arocas, R. (1997). Money as a motivator and the endorsement of the money ethic among university faculty in the USA and Spain: The development of a new Money Ethic Scale. Paper presented at the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology.
Money Ethic Scale
1. Money is an important factor in the lives of all of us.
2. Money is good.
3. Money can buy everything.
4. Money is evil.
5. Money represents one’s achievement.
6. Money in the bank is a sign of security.
7. Money is a symbol of success.
8. Money is the most important thing (goal) in my life.
9. Money gives you autonomy and freedom.
10. Money can bring you many friends.
11. Money is attractive.
12. Money is the root of all evil.
13. Money is important.
14. Money is useless.
15. Money makes people respect you in the community.
16. Money spent is money lost (wasted).
17. Money is valuable.
18. Money will help you express your competence and abilities.
19. Money can buy you luxuries.
20. Money can give you the opportunity to be what you want to be.
21. Money means power.
22. Money is honorable.
23. Money is shameful.
24. Money does not grow on trees.
25. A penny saved is a penny earned.
26. I pay my bills immediately in order to avoid interest or penalties.
27. I think that it is very important to save some money.
28. I value money very highly.
29. I use my money very carefully.
30. I budget my money very well.
Scoring: A seven-point Likert type scale has the following anchors: disagree strongly = 1; neutral = 4; and agree strongly = 7.